Paying cash for a flight change on a flight booked with points?

[jd991]

Sorry if I missed a similar topic, but a cursory search didn't find anything with a great answer for this.

I booked a flight a few months back using RR points but I am considering changing the flight to a different time that would cost a decent amount more points (~9000). I have a $50 voucher that is expiring in the next few months so it would most likely work out better for me to pay for the flight change using cash/the voucher rather than the points. Does anyone know if this is possible? Anyone have any experience doing it?

Thanks for any help.

[dfwskier]

Sure you can do that, but probably not in the way you hope to do it. You can't pay for a ticket with a combination of cash and points. Points alone - fine.   $ alone - fine.

You'll have to cancel the original reservation, and then rebook using voucher + credit card. Unused points will go back in your RR account.

RR points are worth somewhere around 1.8 cents each. So 9000 points roughly equates to a $162 fare.

[bec102896]

@jd991

you can only use credit card/vouchers/gift cards (combined 3 methods) or just points to book a flight and if you go to change the flight your difference in cost would be based off of how you originally booked the flight. points booking would pay the difference in points credit card bookings would be by credit card (or voucher) 

For example if you book a 6am flight on points and you want to change to the 6pm flight you would pay the fare difference in points. Southwest doesn't offer a points and Cash ticket at this time so you could not pay a difference with a credit card or voucher when the original payment was points.

now if you want to go from using points to fully on the credit card/voucher you would need to cancel the original flight and rebook at the current price of the flight.

Hope this helps!

Blake